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Stupid dope debut album from French born, Brooklyn resident Napoleon Da Legend with production from the excellent DJ Doom, including guest features from Smiff n Wessun's General Steele and Arsonists' Q-Unique among others. Mixed by the legend that is Eddie Sancho so, amazing sound. Full colour artwork comes from our man in Oz, Mark 563. Check the snippets yo, this is a contender for one of the albums of the year!!!!

£19.99 + shipping
There will be 350 copies pressed ONLY
This first 120 copies will be on Clear + Purple + Orange mixed coloured vinyl.
And the remaining 230 are on traditional black vinyl

If you want to buy JUST the new Napoleon Da Legend LP, use these links:

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COLOURS NOW SOLD OUT

ANY QUESTIONS, INFO ON ORDERING MULTIPLE ITEMS OR COMBINED ORDER SHIPPING DISCOUNTS HIT US UP HERE >>>>> info[at]choppedherringrecords[dot]com or HERE

SHIPPING WITH ALL THE NEW FEB/MARCH PRE-ORDERS IN MID MARCH

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Shaliek [or Big Sha aka Poetry] recorded a single, Reload The Clip, for Kult Recs in 1994. Kult was a New York based house/dance label that hadn't release any other hip hop artists. About 20 test pressings were made, with studio time funded by the group, but the record was never released. A [shady] label called Funkin Recs bootlegged the TP soon after and a small number were pressed, just ripped from that very rare TP [an inside job perhaps?]. The joints for the 12" were recorded at Bryan's Studio in Astoria, Queens and due to limited funds, each track had to be tied up in a matter of 4 hours!

Producer Artwell Smart came up in Corona Queens and he, Sha & Shabay had a group called Zig Zag Zig. Artwell was in high school with Dr Butcher, original X-Men member and producer. Artwell learned a whole lot about production from Butcher, who went on to do scratches on Kool G Rap & Polo's albums, as well as production on G Rap's & Akinyele's mid 90s material, among others. And on the subject of Kool G Rap, Artwell was in an early [unknown] rap group with him called Rappateers - all music now lost, alas. Back then Artwell was known as Spanish Fly [due to his Puerto Rican origins] and they gave the last copy of their demo tape to Herbie The Luv Bug. A short time after, G Rap signed with Marley and the Rappateers were over.

We gained access to the original DAT recordings of the "Reload The Clip" 12" single as well as 2 incredible, unheard demo joints off cassette. Shout out to Artwell Smart, DJ Mista Sinista & Simon Pehlgrim who helped make this happen. PEEP IT >>>>"

All tracks produced by Stranger Danger & Saker-25's.
All cuts by DJ Admit1.

£10.99 + shipping

GO TO THE STORE TO COP CD'S INDIVIDUALLY OR USE THE LINK DIRECTLY BELOW TO ORDER ALL 3 IN ONE TRANSACTION >>>>

If you want JUST the 3 NEW cd's, use these links:

All 3 New Cds [WISEGUYS + ROACH + SHYLOW]

All 3 New Cds [WISEGUYS + ROACH + SHYLOW]

To ADD TO YOUR ORDER, use these links:

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ANY QUESTIONS, INFO ON ORDERING MULTIPLE ITEMS OR COMBINED ORDER SHIPPING DISCOUNTS HIT US UP HERE >>>>> info[at] choppedherringrecords[dot]com or HERE

SHIPPING FROM NEXT WEEK

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DA BUZE BRUVAZ - ADEBISI HAT LP

Re-Mastered by Giallo Point

First release of 2018 is our 5th project with Philly Lo headz, Da Buze Bruvaz. This, their stunning debut album, has been remastered by the man like Giallo Point from the original stems, so the sound is rockin! Production comes from a host of Buze favourites as well as some bangers from the extremely flavasome Giallo Point & French producer Kyo Itachi. This is their illest work to date and there's lots more to come..ENJOY!!

£19.99 + shipping
There will be 350 copies pressed ONLY
This first 120 copies will be on Red & Silvr mixed coloured vinyl
And the remaining 230 are on traditional black vinyl

If you JUST want the Da Buze Bruvaz LP, use these links:

If buying one Da Buze Bruvaz LP use this link:

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ANY QUESTIONS, INFO ON ORDERING MULTIPLE ITEMS OR COMBINED ORDER SHIPPING DISCOUNTS HIT US UP HERE >>>>> info[at] choppedherringrecords[dot]com or HERE

THIS IS A PRE-ORDER - WAX SHIPS WITH ALL THE NEW RELEASES FROM 20th JANUARY.

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WISEGUYS

=

THE ALMIGHTY RSO + MADE MEN + TDS MOB

BOSTON STAND UP!!!

We're finishing off the year with this bomb out of Boston, that was set to drop on Def Jam/Surrender in 1996. These 6, previously unreleased tracks, featured on the promotional tape version of the 1996 "In The Company Of Killaz" album. Wiseguys were a group made up of members of legendary Boston Gangsta Rap crew The Almighty RSO, Made Men and TDS Mob . The group's formation is perfectly in line with the purest form of Hip Hop - that is, music that brought gang members together, off the street,to squash beefs and create something positive to inspire others to do the same.

One of their first breakthroughs was winning the ICA B-Town Rap Battle in 1986. Following that, in 1989 they went to NY to work with Paul C and recorded a whole album that was never released [!]. They were signed to Tommy Boy in 1992 but were dropped due to the controversial single "One in the Chamba" which prompted The Boston Police Patrolman's Association (BPPA) pressing charges against the group under a state law that prohibits inciting assaults against public figures.

They were again picked up by another label, Flavor Unit and following Flava Unit's demise they were picked up by RCA. RSO & Made Men morphed into Wiseguys and released their debut album "In The Company Of Killaz" in 1996 on The Source's co-founder David Mays' label Surrender Recs in conjunction with Def Jam. The tracks we have for you here are perhaps the nicest from that set of material, and never featured on the original, released version of the album. All tracks were transfered from the original studio master DATS by producer Twice Thou. Chopped Herring would like to thank E-Vicious aka Twice Thou for making this project happen along with Boston Hip Hop afficiando Gage-One who made the connect and Simon Pehlgrim for all his help.

£24.99 + shipping
There will be 350 copies pressed ONLY
This first 120 copies will be on Green Gold coloured vinyl
And the remaining 230 are on traditional black vinyl

If you want to buy the new Wiseguys EP use these links:

If ONLY buying 1 copy use this link:

If ONLY buying 1 copy use this link:

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ANY QUESTIONS, INFO ON ORDERING MULTIPLE ITEMS OR COMBINED ORDER SHIPPING DISCOUNTS HIT US UP HERE >>>>> info[at]choppedherringrecords[dot]com or HERE

THIS IS A PRE-ORDER - WAX SHIPS WITH ALL THE NEW RELEASES MID JANUARY.

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So the man like Stranger Danger from North East LA hit me up with a project for me to check and it COMPLETELY blew me away. Ridiculous break selection from + drug-fuelled, hedonistic comedy from MC's Denzer, X-press & Stranger. What a treat this one is. We will have lots to come from Mr Danger in 2018, no doubt ...

Some words from Stranger Danger >>

I started producing in the year 2000 and my first beat machine was a Boss sp 505, but I've always collected vinyl since as early as the age of five when my parents bought me my first fisher price, toys r us record player. I started freestyling and writing rhymes in 1995, but didn't actually start recording or mixing until 2001. I formed tha Roach Killaz in 2016 after my younger cousin X-Press told me that him and his homie Denzer wrote and spit iLL rhymes as well. During this time I was recording at a friends studio called The Halfway House where I met a 20 year old Mc and producer named Saker who I took under my wing as my protege to help me with production on the album. In another studio session shortly after meeting, Saker brought his homie named Duer, and thats when the puzzle pieces aligned perfectly and I knew I had somthing special. All of our influences are very similar. If it sounds dope, then it is! Personally my greatest influences growing up were Mf Doom, Kool Keith, Dj Premier, Kutmasta Kurt, Rza, Apakalypse, Necro, and dj's like Dj Shi'iteand Dj Rob One for always feeding my ears with the dopest selection of Hip Hop in all of their mix tapes. My recording process is simple, I let Mc's go at it until I hear something that I feel can help them sound better, whether it be vocal fluctuation, vocal tone, cadence, or energy. Too much pride is a no no, it's all about doing whatever it takes to make the illest records possible. I dig or listen to music from all era's and over the world. I study music for at least six to eight hours a day, so what keeps me inspired daily is the opportunity to find incredible samples to flip. It's an obsessive compulsive disposer but therapeutic at the same time. I used to have small intense spurts of creating, but now it's an all the time thing. I work on three to four albums at the same time constantly and always try to top the album I did last. X-Press, Denzer, and I are all Highland Park natives, (North East Los Angeles). Duer and Saker are originally from the San Gabriel Valley, which is in Los Angeles county as well! - Tha Roach Killaz, Killin Roaches.

All tracks produced by Stranger Danger & Saker-25's.
All cuts by DJ Admit1.

£19.99 + shipping
There will be 350 copies pressed ONLY
This first 120 copies will be on Transparent Green coloured vinyl
And the remaining 230 are on traditional black vinyl

If you want to cop JUST Tha Roach Killaz LP, use these links:

If buying one Tha Roach Killaz LP use this link:

If buying one Tha Roach Killaz use this link:

To ADD Tha Roach Killaz LP to your order, use these links:

To add 1 copy to your order:

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ANY QUESTIONS, INFO ON ORDERING MULTIPLE ITEMS OR COMBINED ORDER SHIPPING DISCOUNTS HIT US UP HERE >>>>> info[at] choppedherringrecords[dot]com or HERE

THIS IS A PRE-ORDER - WAX SHIPS WITH ALL THE NEW RELEASES MID JANUARY.

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Welcome back fish headz!!!

To start off the December/January cycle, we have this sick mid to late 90's project from Canadian MC & producer Shylow aka one half of the excellent First Division crew. Cats will know this from YouTube no doubt, as only 100 cassettes were ever made in 2000 then the project was leaked on the toob by our man.For this project on Herring, Shylow collected all the original 4/8 track tapes together, along with the original tape deck model and he re-recorded and re-mastered them for the crispiest sound possible. Included are 2 super-dope, previously unleaked demos from the same time period. This makes for a SOLID LP of 90's, Canadian indy madness.

Check this short but sweet interview with the man like Shylow >>

Where did you grow up man?

No one specific place unfortunately, I moved around a lot as a kid. I guess you could say Durham Region because those are the cities I've spent most of my life in other than the one year that I lived in Thunder Bay which was back in 92/93.

What are your earliest memories of the culture?

I'd have to say the day I bought my first cassette back in 84, it was a tape called Breakdance by K-Tel. One side had a full rap instructional on how to break by Alex And The City Crew, and the other side had joints like Herbie Hancock Rockit and The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel. Nobody I knew as a kid really listened to music like I did so I was kinda on my own when it came to hunting down information until I'd say around 4th grade. That's when cats in school started hooking me up with mixtapes and what not. Up until that point it was just whatever I heard on the radio which wasn't much unfortunately.

When did you first grab a mic?

If I'm not mistaken it was at a Christmas assembly in 9th grade. I'd already been writing for a few years but that was the first time I'd ever held a mic and rocked in front of a crowd. I distincly remember forgetting my lyrics and launching into a freestyle to save my ass, thankfully everyone in the gymnasiam was too busy going nuts that they didn't notice my fuck up, hahah.

When/where did you first record?

My homie James Stang discovered me at a battle in Ajax where I came in second place to Nigel of the Pocket Dwellers. He approached me and asked if I wanted to come thru to his studio to record some joints. That was back in like, 95/96 I believe. I've never had copies of those joints all these years and just recently he dug them up in his archives and sent them to me. Was so strange hearing them after 20 years, I was like "whoa is this really me?", crazy.

How did the Demos project come about?

Back when we were getting ready to drop the Moment Of Clarity 12" my dude Beatsmith and I were brainstorming of a way to get the word out and came up with the idea of putting together a collection of unreleased demos and mixtape skits to give out for free. We pressed up 100 cassettes (half were clear and the other half translucent blue), handed those out, and leaked the mp3 version on the net shortly after that. Can't tell you how many times I've been asked about that shit over the years, it's a blessing that heads felt it like that.

Who do you consider to be your greatest influence hip-hop wise?

DJ Premier, hands down the greatest hip-hop producer of all time. I ain't even gonna say "in my opinion" imma just say FACTS, hahahah. Nah but seriously, there hasn't been anyone in the game who's music has affected me like his. He's the epitome of real hip-hop, everything about him and what he's accomplished has inspired me to no end. On top of all that, he's one of the coolest and most authentic individuals I've ever met. Can't say enough good things about the legend.

Did you have any older cats around you growing up who put you on to production, rhyming and scratching?

Absolutely. I credit Tekniq, Nigel of the Pocket Dwellers and G Knight as my MC mentors. All three of those dudes helped me take things to the next level in different areas. While Nigel and G both helped sharpen my freestyle skills, Tek taught me so much about the science of rhyming, patterns, syllable structure etc. On the production tip all credit goes to Tekniq for showing me the ropes. The time I spent in the studio with him bangin out on the S950 was invaluable. As for scratching goes, I taught myself for the most part by watching videos on Rap City and just studying the music, but I definitely picked some things up from my DJ homies, and I still do. A lot of the more difficult scratches that I've learned came from watching my homie BeatWyze, dudes just as ill on the cuts as he is with the beats, trust me.

This first 100 copies will be on White Mint coloured vinyl.
This next 100 copies will be on Red, Black & Clear coloured vinyl.
And the remaining 300 are on traditional black vinyl.

If you want to buy JUST the 5-Elementz - Album Time Forgot EP, use these links:

If ONLY buying 1 copy use this link:

If ONLY buying 2 copies use this link:

To ADD the 5-Elementz - Album Time Forgot EP to your current order, use these links:

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ANY QUESTIONS, INFO ON ORDERING MULTIPLE ITEMS OR COMBINED ORDER SHIPPING DISCOUNTS HIT US UP HERE >>>>> info[at]choppedherringrecords[dot]com or HERE

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"HORROR CITY CREW is BACK,

....even though they never went away"

We last dropped a record with the supa-ill Horror City Crew back in 2010 with the Prince Paul-produced 1995 demos which later became the "A Prince AmongThieves" album - and here's a dope BRAND NEW nugget for all the Amityville heads out there. We have 2 massive NEW joints from the OG Long Island Crew....

PEEP IT

Tracks:

A1 No Gimmicks
B1 Change The Game

A1 Produced by Funkymoon and Poole
B1 Produced DJ Slice

£6.49 + shipping

There will be 350 copies pressed ONLY

ALL COPIES PRESSED ON CLEAR/RED BLOODY HORROR VINYL!!

If you want to cop just the Horror City 7", use these links:

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ANY QUESTIONS, INFO ON ORDERING MULTIPLE ITEMS OR COMBINED ORDER SHIPPING DISCOUNTS HIT US UP HERE >>>>> info[at]choppedherringrecords[dot]com or HERE

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Dope, fully unreleased project outta Queens from 1994-1997 finally gets a release. Included are 5 tracks from the 1994 demo tape period [recorded from the original studio masters] as well as 3 tracks penned for a potential Makin' Records release in 1997, which never happened. Here's some more info from one of th main men, producer & MC, Mr Omega >>

How did you cats meet?

Bug and I both came up in Cambria Heights, Queens, but hadn't met until the Fall of '91. A number of emcees from the neighborhood were teaming up to perform at a talent show at Bayside High School, and the dude who was getting us in told me he had a young emcee who he wanted to join us. I told my dude to bring him through to my mom's house and let me hear him, since I was considered one of the main emcees of the area back then. So the next day he brings over this dude who called himself Fiction, real young but he's got genuine flow to him. I still had my former DJ's setup in the house so I threw on some doubles and spun some loops to hear him spit, and he was readily accepted for the show. After we did the talent show, my man Derrick came to me and wanted to form a group that would include Fiction and some other heads from the area, and wanted me to lead, which I did reluctantly. We started out as Point Blank, at which time Fiction changed his name to Bugz, and went through a couple of changes in roster and name, turning into Dreadnaughts, but went looking for something new when we came across the Dredknotz, who were also on the scene. By this time we'd become friends with Cella Dwellaz, and it was UG who suggested we take the name Morlocks, based on the X-Men comics, but we decided we wanted to be seen separate from that and added an 'h’ to the name, then becoming Mhorlocks. We had also eventually pared down to just myself and Bugz, as I was prepared to leave the unit, but Bugz wanted to continue teaming up, so I agreed since we were feeding on each other's energy and it made for a good combo. Of course that was only the beginning.

What's the story of you getting music & music production?

You can say I got into it at various stages, although hip-hop is where I seem to have committed the most. As a kid I took Classical piano lessons for about 7 years, and during that time, in about 1985, is when I wrote my first set of lyrics. Since I was always pretty quiet I didn't even let it really be known until about 4 years later when I first performed in a show at my HS, Brooklyn Tech. This was also around the time that I first went into a studio to try recording a demo, that was musically so trash! Nothing but drums, no other real instrumentation at all. It wasn't until later, going to other studios, that I would naturally vibe with the engineers and they'd offer to teach me the equipment during our sessions, it was like paying for classes while at the same time making my own music. My real mentor turned out to be my man Christos Tsantilis who ran Circuit Studios. He taught me the ASR-10 in detail and things really took off from there. Up until that point, I was making Point Blank's production using a 4-second delay for loops, a Casio SK-5 keyboard, and an Oberheim DX, with a whole component stereo system just for the turntable access. If Fred Sanford of Sanford & Son was a producer, he'd be me... but I guess it did the job because I produced just about all the tracks for Mhorlocks, except for a couple Poka did later, and some producers we worked with along the way like J. Prinns who worked with our whole Critical Mass click, and God's Child, who we met while working with Makin' Records.

Who did you come up listening to?

Coming up in the age of variety radio, I listened to just about every genre -- jazz, hip-hop, soul, R&B, rock. In the course of an afternoon, I could hear Doug E. Fresh, Hall & Oates, then Stevie Wonder, and in no particular order. Then spending time with my dad, he exposed me to reggae, calypso, soca, and was really my introduction to listening to jazz music like John Coltrane and Art Blakey. So all of that had an influence on me.

Shoot us an email to let us know what you need - info[at]choppedherringrecords.com
or send us a message via the 'Contact Us' page.

5-Elementz formed in Detroit in 1992. The group met while attending Osborn High School on 7 Mile. The original members consisted of Thyme, Proof, Mudd, Jay Dee & DJ head. They recorded the "Yester Years" EP in 1993-1994 and dropped it on Cassette in 1996. There was also a very limited Test Pressing version. We have had access to the original studio DATs and we bring to you the original EP plus an extra, previously unreleased Jay Dee heater. Let's go!!!!

Tracks:

A1 Searchin'
A2 Feedback
A3 Janet Jacme

B1 Don't Stop
B2 Sunflower
B3 Clear (Previously Unreleased)

All tracks written & produced by the original 5-Elementz (D.Holton,B.Russell, J.Yancy, K.Bell & R.Moorer-El]

£24.99 + shipping

There will be 500 copies pressed ONLY.

This first 100 copies will be on White Mint coloured vinyl.
This next 100 copies will be on Red, Black & Clear coloured vinyl.
And the remaining 300 are on traditional black vinyl.

PAYPAL LINKS WILL APPEAR HERE IN 2 MINS

ANY QUESTIONS, INFO ON ORDERING MULTIPLE ITEMS OR COMBINED ORDER SHIPPING DISCOUNTS HIT US UP HERE >>>>> info[at]choppedherringrecords[dot]com or HERE

THIS IS A PRE-ORER AND WILL SHIP MID SEPTEMBER WITH THE REST OF THE AUG/SEPT NEW RELEASES...